NASSCOM CoE launches the second edition of Manufacturing Innovation Challenge 2020

NASSCOM Centre of Excellence IoT & AI is a MeitY initiative. With the Gujarat government, the CoE has launched the second edition of the Manufacturing Innovation Challenge 2020 (MIC2020) from 12th October 2020 to 12th December 2020. The objective of this challenge is to build a ‘first-of-a-kind platform’ for enterprise and start-up collaboration to solve key challenges the manufacturing industry is facing today.

Top 18 startups will then present their ideas to a Jury. The Jury will have representations from senior leaders from industry, academia and government. Start-ups will also receive mentoring support throughout their journey in the challenge to better prepare them for the challenge.

About MIC

The event happened earlier this year from 15th July 2020 to 21st August 2020 and received registration from 88+ matured start-ups from across the country. Participating startups went through a rigorous screening process of four rounds. Speaking at the launch, Amit Saluja, Sr. Director & Vertical Head, Manufacturing, Gandhinagar, NASSCOM CoE, said:

“NASSCOM CoE is building an ecosystem for manufacturing companies to work with technology companies and innovative start-ups to drive adoption of Industry 4.0 solutions. MIC2020 was launched to accelerate this mission and received an exceptional response. Thus, this challenge created value for everyone as it helped enterprises find the best solution partner and start-ups got an opportunity to work with their dream companies. The success of this program has, thus, motivated us to run these challenges every quarter, and we look forward to getting similar support in all our future initiatives.”

Program Details

NASSCOM CoE in association with RPG Group, JK Lakshmi Cement, Thermax Limited, Mother Dairy, Grasim Industries and Minda Industries has nominated six use cases in three broad categories. They are Resource Optimization, Improved Throughput and Supply Chain. They encourage startups to solve the challenges by submitting a proposal.

Timeline

Tata Communications is the sponsor for the event. The registrations for the event will go online from 12th October. The last date to apply is 30th October 2020. Thus, if your startup wishes to take up the challenge, don’t forget to register here.

Eligibility Criteria

The Startup should have an annual turnover not exceeding Rs. 25 crores. It should not be a company older than 10 years and the total manpower should not be more than 100 employees.

NASSCOM expects more than 200 startups to participate in the event. They will get the opportunity of mentoring support throughout the event. The mentors will coach the start-ups and guide them to be better ready for the challenge. Also, a panel of eminent judges will help to identify and narrow down the best solutions put forward. The jury will sort cases through rigorous screening and selecting processes.